The present invention is directed to a surgical stockinette for covering body extremities, especially during surgical procedures. More specifically, the surgical stockinette of the present invention is made from a laminate that has a fibrous body side surface, is liquid impermeable and elastic. The surgical stockinette has low lint characteristics and good comfort and fit.
Many surgical procedures involve the body extremities either because of the surgical procedure being performed directly on the body extremity or the necessity to isolate the body extremity for a particular procedure. Proper sterile technique requires that, absent the specific area being operated upon, the remainder of the patient should be isolated from the surgical site to reduce the risk of contamination and infection. Generally a surgical drape is used to cordon off the surgical site from the remainder of the patient. However, certain procedures require the access to or exposure of the arms and legs which in turn necessitates separate surgical coverings for the exposed limbs. A practice in the past has been to encase the exposed limb in a surgical wrap such as is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,934,582. A product similar to this is sold by Johnson and Johnson Medical, Inc. and utilizes a knitted polyester, cotton, or polyester/cotton blend interliner and an elastomeric film outer layer made from Elastoflex.RTM. K film from Clopay Corporation of Cincinnati, Ohio. Elastoflex.RTM. K film is made of Kraton.RTM. polymers from Shell Corporation. Each of the two materials or pieces is separately formed into a tube with one end closed. The knitted tube material is inserted inside the tubular elastic film material, however there is no actual joining of either layers to the other. Thus, the inner and outer layers can twist, bunch-up and move independently of one another.
This type of wrap or legging is rolled into a ring before application. To apply the wrap the closed end of the wrap is placed over the foot or hand of the patient and the remainder of the wrap is then unrolled by rolling the wrap down and over the limb in the direction of the torso of the patient. Such products are bulky and loose fitting. The knitted inner layer also tends to move and shift relative to the outer layer of elastic rubber thereby making the positioning of the wrap unstable during use.
If the surgical procedure is to be performed on the wrapped limb, an incision is often made directly through both the inner and outer layers of the wrap in the area directly surrounding the incision. Here again because the inner and outer layers are not attached to one another, cleanly cutting through both the layers can sometimes be difficult, especially if the knitted material is bunched-up underneath the elastic rubber outer layer. Furthermore, the knitted material when cut tends to unravel thereby producing a large amount of lint which can enter the wound or incision site thereby causing complications.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a surgical stockinette which is compact, form-fitting and low linting. It is another object of the present invention to provide a surgical stockinette where the inner layer will not move independent of the outer layer. It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a surgical stockinette which can be easily cut to expose the surgery site.
Another problem with existing surgical wraps is the lack of conformability to the extremity being wrapped. It is therefore yet another object of the present invention to provide a surgical stockinette with improved fit and comfort.
These and other objects of the present invention will become more apparent upon a further review of the following specification, drawings and claims.